Here are 5 resolutions your small business might benefit from making if you have an eye on eventual exit or transition. Alright they may not read as resolutions but these are practices that will dramatically improve your chances.

1. Have an End Game in Mind

Every business should have an Exit Strategy. This one best practice alone will increase your probabilities of a successful exit.Understanding how you aim to exit will help you gain clarity as you build, grow and expand your business about the value you offer with your products and/or services.

2. Mind the books and ‘Keep House’

Most entrepreneurs find bookkeeping and accounting tedious, annoying, and at best, a historically insignificant set of statistics that shine little on the excitement of the coming year. Having a professional and up-to-date set of books will save you a whole lot of bother when the time comes to transition.

Nothing is more important than “Keeping House” assuring that every facet of the organization knows what is happening and is involved. The same is true for board meetings and stockholder actions. Nothing tells a potential investor your house is in disarray quite like the lack of documentation and/or the lack of involvement from your corporate attorney on major decisions. The fix is simple: take detailed minutes and make sure that your corporate attorney is present at every board meeting.

3. Delegate yourself out of a job

You’ll always feel like it’s faster to do everything yourself, and not spend time to others show them how to do it. This is unsustainable. Your business will be more fun to work at if you can focus on the strategic and business-building work. Work on your business not in it. Here is a link to an earlier post on how to create a plan.

4. Run your business as if it’s always for sale

It is wise to build any business as if you’re planning to sell it, whether or not you do so in the end. By reducing the risk to a potential buyer, after all, you’re also reducing the risk to yourself should you later decide not to sell. In that case, you’ll also be the one best able to take advantage of the growth potential you’ve demonstrated. Here is a link to steps you can take.

5. Sew Up Your IP

If you do not definitively own the intellectual property you are trying to monetize, you have no negotiation. Period. Acquirers do not work from presumed ownership, they buy based on actual, proof-in-hand ownership.